SUKKUR, March 19: Sugarcane growers on Wednesday night staged a sit-in near Moro against the non-payment of dues by sugar mills. The protesters, led by former provincial minister Khan Mohammad Dahri and Syed Zainul-Abideen , staged a sit-in at the National Highway and blocked the road by parking their tractor trolleys.

Later, when the TPO of Moro reached the scene and assured them of resolving their problems, the growers dispersed peacefully. Adds our Nawabshah correspondent: Sindh Abadgar Board activists will block the National Highway between Moro and Naushero Feroze on Friday in protest against failure of three sugar mills to pay dues of growers.

This was announced by the district president of the farmers' organization, Syed Zain Shah, at a press conference here on Thursday. He said that Habib Sugar Mills had to pay Rs80 million, Sakrand Sugar Mills Rs48 million and Al-Noor Sugar Mills Rs76 million to the growers as last year's arrears.

He said that initially supply to Al-Noor and Sakrand Sugar Mills was closed from March 15-19 as a protest and these mills had no sugarcane at the moment, but as the crushing time was short, they had decided to allow growers to supply cane.

He further said that some brokers continued supply to these two mills during the protest period but now they had also suspended the supply. He accused the government of being least interested in solving the growers problems and said that Sindh Abadgar Board has decided to protest against the government for non-payment of their dues by blocking the National Highway between Moro and Naushero Feroze on March 19.

He warned that if even after that government did nothing, they would pick up sugar stock from Sakrand and Al-Noor Sugar Mills godowns and sell it to recover their dues.

The DAWN